Lubna al-Hussein

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein is a Sudanese Muslim, media worker and activist who came to international attention in July 2009 when she was prosecuted for wearing trousers. Her case has become a cause célèbre, with organisations such as the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and Amnesty International issuing statements in support.

Al-Hussein is a journalist who, at the time of her arrest, worked for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan. She was known for her public criticism of the government of Sudan's treatment of women.

The legal system of the country is based on Islamic law (sharia), and it permits judicial corporal punishment such as flagellation. The criminal law prohibits dressing indecently in public, a charge which carries a punishment of 40 lashes and a fine. According to the director of police, in 2008 in Khartoum State alone, over 40 000 women were arrested for clothing offences; it is not known how many were convicted or flogged.

The full text of Article 152 in the Memorandum to the 1991 Penal Code is:

On 3 July 2009, the Public Order Police entered the Kawkab Elsharq Hall, looking for any women and girls wearing trousers. Al-Hussein — who had come to book a cousin's wedding party and was watching an Egyptian singer and sipped a coke while she waited — was arrested with twelve other women. Ten of them pleaded guilty immediately, were given ten lashes each, and released. Hussein and two other women refused this offer and insisted on a trial.

Between the arrest and the trial, Hussein began to publicize the case by printing 500 invitation cards and sending emails with the subject line "Sudanese journalist Lubna invites you again to her flogging tomorrow". Hussein has used her legal battle as a public platform for attacking article 152, on the grounds that the way it is applied in the Sudan is neither constitutionally, nor dogmatically allowed by Shariah law. Her efforts have led to a public show of solidarity by women in the region, but also violence by Islamic extremists.

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